Something New Leads to Brand Loyalty

I've always enjoyed Sun Chips, but I've never really gone out of my way to purchase them. Back when I was in school and, later, when I worked at the library, I would grab a bag from the vending machine when the mid-afternoon munchies hit because they were they best option in the machine.

After church yesterday, I hit the grocery store to pick up a few things and I saw the chips, in their new 100% compostable bag and I decided to grab a couple different flavors.

The bags are crazy loud, but the chips are delicious, good for you, and the packaging helps the planet (and the kids loved them, bonus!).

Now, I will definitely make it a point to purchase the chips to have on hand as a snack for my family.

Earth Day Play (& New Shoes, Too!)

During our walk last night, I promised the kids that we could go to the playground at the North End of town today if the weather was good. The weather cooperated, so I stuck to my word and we had a marathon session at the playground. There were a few sets of kids over the couple of hours that we were there and they were all fun to play with and the other mothers and I enjoyed talking (I'm still new-ish to negotiating parental playground etiquette). Towards the end of our play time, I noticed a man and young girl on the perimeter of the playground and park area, cleaning up. I thanked him to all of his hard work (he had several bags full of junk that had accumulated over the winter months) and it turns out that every year, on Earth Day, he takes his daughter to clean up the park and playground so that everyone can enjoy a clean place to play. How cool is that?! I thought that was just awesome...and what a fabulous for his daughter!

After our visit to the playground, I brought the kids up to the outlet mall in Tilton to check out some new shoes. Ella wore an older pair of shoes last night while we were out and ended up getting a couple of blisters (even though she swore that her feet "felt great" whenever I asked her how she was doing). Imagine how much of a schmucky mother I felt like when I found out that her feet were a full TWO SIZES larger than the sneakers she wore into the store (note: those are not the shoes she was wearing last night; for the record, we'd never had a problem getting her sneakers on and she'd never complained about the fit). Now, she and Liam are sporting some snazzy new sneaks that even glow in the dark that they were very excited to show off to Nana after we visited the shoe store.

Tonight, even though we'd had a good run around the playground for 2+ hours, I did a half hour of upper body weight training on my stability ball and then did a 2 mile Leslie DVD for the lower body. I feel very good.

More Bullet Points

• Went out for a long family walk with the kids tonight, including visits to two different playgrounds. Ella completely inserted herself into a group of older girls at the first playground we went to. It was very interesting and cute to watch. The girls totally let her in and she ran around and played with them, and was very bummed when it came time for them to leave.
  
• I'm loving how wiped out the kids are from playing outside...it makes for fabulous, restful sleep for them!
• I'm thrilled, THRILLED that Kate is finally gone from DWTS. Yeah, yeah, yeah...she was making infinitesimal progress on the dance floor, but her being a contestant was a joke!
• Cait, Ella and I went to our hair stylist last night to have our hair played with for the wedding. Oh my, did Miss Ella love it! She was so. damn. cute. I, on the other hand, have hair too short to be played with and will have to settle for flat ironing on the Big Day. *sigh*
• The kids' birthday party went quite well on Sunday. I'm still pretty tired from the lack of sleep leading up to the day...my late nights are catching up with me, but I never learn. The perils of being a night owl. I was literally functioning on 3 hours and 15 minutes of sleep for all of Sunday, but it all went well. The sun even came out for a bit and Liam enjoyed walking his grandparents' dog several times (the highlight of the day for him, I'm sure).
• Last Friday, Mom and I took the kids to Funspot for the first time ever. I was a little concerned about the trip, but it went very well. I'm not huge on the whole indoor arcade thing, but the place was totally dead and L & E stuck to the little kids' area, which was awesome. Again, I LOVE AGE 4! Funspot plays a pivotal role in some happy childhood memories for me, but that's before the place expanded and became ginormous. Still, though, it was a hoot to see the kids riding on the same little bumper cars that I used to ride when I was a kid. Ahhhh, memories.
• This week is draaaaaaaaaging. Just sayin'.
  

Catching My Breath

Boy...you guys aren't really keeping me honest!

Actually, someone has been on my case for not blogging regularly...so here I am :)

Life has been going at a pretty breakneck pace lately, but it has also been filled with Leslie workouts and lots of outdoor play and yard work, so I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping my word when it comes to getting at least 30 minutes of exercise everyday.

I've had two Pampered Chef shows in the past week and they were both good fun. One was for a friend of mine and the other was for my sister. Next month is our fundraiser for the American Cancer Society with our Help Whip Cancer campaign and I'm hoping to book a few more shows. It's a cause very close to my heart, since Mom's a breast cancer survivor.

Liam and Ella turned 4 last Friday and we didn't get to the Childrens' Museum, as I'd hoped, but we had a nice, relaxing day together as a family. We went out to lunch and Mom joined us, as a surprise to the kids; then we had a nice time visiting with Cait and Jeeps during the evening. I can't believe my monkeys are 4...where have my babies gone?! I will say, though, that what I've heard about Age 4 is true. It is SO MUCH BETTER than Age 3! We started to notice it early last week, as their birthday drew near, and have definitely seen a difference this week. Sure, they're still crazy bugs at some points, but I love Age 4! By this time last year, I was already none too happy with Age 3...funny that.

The kids' birthday party is this Sunday and I'm more than a little annoyed that I listened to a certain sister of mine who was a stress case months ago that I couldn't have the party on the Sunday after their birthday (which would have been last Sunday, when the weather was nice) because it would interfere with her plans for her birthday (which was last Monday). That sister and I are currently not speaking, but I went ahead and accommodated her and didn't plan the party for last Sunday and now I'm kicking myself because it's going to be rainy and dreary this Sunday. *grumble*grumble* I've been busy trying to clean and organize for the party and, since it looks like we'll be stuck inside, I really need to get on that some more. We did buy a new grill last night - it's so cute! - so I still may send J out to grill on Sunday, but other than that, I've got a bunch of stuff to do.

I bought a new Leslie DVD which I can't wait to try out. It's a 5-mile total workout, but you can break it down into 1-mile segments. Being a "go big or go home" kind of chick, though, I plan to do all 5 miles whenever I do it. It's my second 5-mile Leslie DVD and I really enjoy the other one, so I'm hoping this one is just as good. When I have the time, I want to go through the various workouts available On Demand and see what's there.

Now...I must find chocolate. I think it's time to make brownies on this cold, rainy, cruddy day.

Rediscovering

Whew! This week is half over and that's pretty fabulous. Tonight, I had dinner out with Friend Katie (which is what the kids, especially Ella, call her and I think it's an awesome nickname) and her mother. Her mom's going to be hosting a Pampered Chef show so we all got together to talk about it and plan for the show. We had a lovely dinner and visit and I'm very excited about the upcoming show.

Since I knew I was going to be home close to bedtime, I had to wait for the kids to be totally asleep before I could workout (if they'd heard me come home, there would have been serious demands for snuggling and then I most likely would have fallen asleep and not gotten out of there in time). So I was planning for tonight to be a shorter workout than I've been doing lately. I chose another Leslie DVD, Walk Strong. I haven't done it in a while and I forgot exactly what it entailed. It's a fast paced walk with intervals of strength training done with a resistance band. I boosted it by using a medium resistance band and then shortening it to really ramp up the level of resistance. I really like this workout.

By the way, someone needs to send a memo to Mother Nature. It's early April in New Hampshire and it's way too warm and humid already. Ugh!

Thunderstorms Are Brewing

What on earth made Kate Gosselin think she could be on Dancing With the Stars? I'm watching last night's episode on DVR and she is beyond awful. She better go next week! Poor Tony. Also, I'm not too thrilled with Brooke Burke as a co-host. Then again, I never liked Samantha Harris, either.

Today I was able to get outside for a bit before it started to rain and did an hour of yardwork. That's my workout for the day; the fresh air was great and I wanted to change up what I'm doing physically.

I don't know what's up lately, but the kids have been c-r-a-z-y. I'm hoping it's just that they're excited for their birthday, which is Friday. J's taking the day off and we're going to do what we do every year, which is spend the day together as a family and do something special and new. I'd like to go out for a nice birthday breakfast and then I'm thinking we might go to the Children's Museum of New Hampshire. We've not been and I think it'd make for a nice day.

Now...I just need to survive the next two days with my insane little monkeys.

Combo

It was already shaping up to be a hectic week, but last night's little drama with my sister just added to the insanity that will be. But, it all culminates in the Muffins' birthday on Friday, which is most definitely a good thing (though where is the time going?! 4 years already?! Where are my babies?)

It was a pretty ugh kind of day. Liam was a little maniac when I ventured to Lowe's to get some stuff to do yard work (yep, I was that mother with the crazy screaming, fit-throwing kid) and, prior to that, Liam and Ella spent a better part of the morning and early afternoon trying to kill each other. It was just one of those days.

Tonight, I decided to switch up the workouts for a little change of pace. I combined two DVDs: Biggest Loser Cardio Max*, which I did the warm-up and first segment of (which kind of makes me believe that Bob Harper might be a little evil, but it's a good 20 minute sweat fest) and then I did Leslie's Walk Off Even More Weight, which has 2 2-mile walks. I did the classic walk with the weight belt, and boosted it with the weighted gloves, too.

Now that all's said and done, I'm a sweaty stinky mess and am going to go take a shower.

*I like the intensity of the BL workouts, because Bob and Jillian are fabulous trainers (Kim's on the Cardio Max, too), but the DVDs are a bit chaotic and leave something to be desired. Yes, it's nice and, to some extent, inspiring that they use previous contestants in the workouts, but they definitely lack finesse and there are times when they're literally going in different directions - I guess it seems a bit cheesy at times.

Fail

We had a lovely Easter and then all hell broke loose this evening with some epic family drama (not within my nuclear family unit, with one of my sisters - all is seemingly OK now, so don't worry).

I wasn't able to workout tonight and I really, really needed it.

Suck.

Almost, But Not Quite, A Puker

My car needed a little servicing this morning, so J and the kids followed me down to Manchester and then we went out to lunch at one of our favorite places. I ran a few more errands (the Easter Bunny had to pick up a few last items at the best candy store around) and then came home to workout before heading to Easter Vigil Mass tonight (Cait and JP are coming into the church tonight and it's very exciting).

Apparently, my lunch was heavier than I thought. Today's workout was another Leslie DVD, Walk Away Your Hips and Thighs, which is a 2 mile walk with stretching and a 20 minute lower-body workout with resistance bands around your ankles. I made it through the walk and stretching just fine, but something in the lower body workout nearly did me in. I made it through, but came this close to losing my lunch.

Phew!

Tonight's Mass should be beautiful. Easter Vigil always begins in darkness and then everyone lights a candle...it's quite a magical sight. Once I get home, it'll be a mad dash to prep for tomorrow. Eggs to stuff, baskets to make up, a guest room to clean (because Cait and Jeeps asked to sleep over at the last minute), and food to make for tomorrow.

Have a very Happy Easter!

Another Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

Today was spent mostly outside again. I even have a little v-neck shaped sunburn (since I never tan and am the palest person I know). We ended up going to the biggest park/playground in Concord with Jeeps' family, where the kids had a blast. Then, all of the kids played here while I was quasi domestic. I need to wade through my clothing and dig out my warm weather stuff. Not really something I look forward to.

Tonight's workout was another Leslie Sansone DVD. I really love her stuff and own quite a few of her DVDs so you'll most likely be seeing her titles a lot when I workout at home. So
I did the Punch Up Your Walk 4 mile walk with weighted gloves and boosted with the weighted belt, too.

It's going to be a busy, busy weekend, but I'm on a roll and intend to keep it up.

This Is Just Too Funny...And Awesome

Let The Sun Shine In!

Today was gorgeous! We spent all afternoon outside playing and the kids and I went for a walk, too. Jeeps' brother and sister-in-law and their kids came up for the weekend to visit the 'rents (who live across the street). Liam and Ella adore the kids, so it was a great afternoon of playing and getting some much needed fresh air.

Tonight brought an unplanned trip to the gym. Mom's sick and asked me to pick up a prescription for her so I used it as a reason to head up to the gym, although my plan had been to workout at home. Generally, I try to avoid going to the gym on Thursday nights because the TVs are unavoidable and J and I DVR Survivor to watch after the kids are in bed. Needless to say, I know who gets voted off and I'm psyched about it (but J and I still need to watch the entire episode and I'm doing a fantastic job of not spilling the beans about the vote).

So...tonight I did 25 minutes on the arc trainer, my absolute favorite machine at the gym, and 25 more on the elliptical. Not too shabby. I cranked up the resistance on the arc and I did a cross training program on the elliptical, so I'm definitely feeling my workout.

I stopped by Mom's on my way home, gave her her medication and visited for a bit. Now, I'm relaxing with J and getting ready to settle in to watch Survivor.

A good day indeed.